


Of Paper Cranes and Pensieves

by Nifflers_n_nargles



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Supportive Ron Weasley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-14
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-07-12 00:51:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15984080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nifflers_n_nargles/pseuds/Nifflers_n_nargles
Summary: I wrote this for my darling, Fanny in her asks as a cheer-me-up. Clearly I was going through it, too.Completely unbetaed so bear with me.Follow me on Tumblrfor more writing and nonsense <3





	Of Paper Cranes and Pensieves

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fantom_ftnoise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fantom_ftnoise/gifts).



> I wrote this for my darling, Fanny in her asks as a cheer-me-up. Clearly I was going through it, too.
> 
> Completely unbetaed so bear with me. 
> 
>  
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr for more writing and nonsense <3

Every night before bed Draco mysteriously slips out of the room and never tells Harry why. One day, about three years later, Harry comes home to strings of origami cranes hanging from the ceiling. Harry walks down the hall and into the den at the back of the house, his and Draco’s favorite room. He finds his boyfriend, on one knee, ring in hand. On each crane Draco has written a reason he loves Harry, one for each day they have lived together. 1000 paper cranes for 1000 perfect days together.

Harry spends the next several months reading all the cranes. At first he just looked at them, unwilling to unfold them and ruin Draco's gesture. Finally, after weeks of sad puppy eyes and plaintive sighs over twice-weekly takeaway and lager, Hermione did a nifty piece of magic that moved Draco's hidden confessions of love into full view. Harry rations the cranes, only reading a few a day. He wants to make these revelations last as long as possible.

On day 16 Harry stops after crane 3, unable to stop laughing at Draco's spiky writing spell out "dat ass tho (I heard a muggle say it today on the street and it just felt right)". Harry spends the rest of the night tricking Draco into saying it over and over again in his posh accent. Draco, to his credit, says it in an increasingly indignant manner because it tickles Harry to no end and he would do anything to hear the sound of his laugh.

As their wedding date approaches, Harry becomes withdrawn and Draco worries he is getting cold feet. He confides in Ron one night, expressing all his deepest fears, after a particularly ugly fight and far too many firewhiskeys to numb the pain. "Mate," Ron slurs, "he loves you so much it terrifies him. He doesn't think he'll ever be able to show you how much, not the way you did." Draco apparates home on the spot, and wakes Harry up with vigorous kisses all over his face.

Harry is still scarce leading up to the wedding, although there are no more fights, and the tension in the house has disappeared. Draco can't help but feel anxious, there is definitely something Harry is keeping from him. Their rehearsal dinner goes off without a hitch, and Draco goes to bed, alone but content (who would have thought that Ron would be the one to insist that they spend the night apart. "But, its tradition, Harry!")

Draco wakes up to sunshine and perfectly fluffy clouds painted into the sky. It feels like something out of a children's book, not something that happens to someone who has made as many mistakes as he has. It takes him a few minutes to realize that his foot is brushing something rather heavy at the foot of the bed. Sometime in the middle of the night a pensive had arrived in his bedroom. Draco was willing to bet his his mother's prize-winning pet crup that Weasley had something to do with it

There was a scroll of parchment affixed to the front and Draco could recognize his fianceé's childish scrawl a kilometer away. "Tap three times and say the name of the place we first met." Draco's heart raced. He lifted his wand with a shaking hand, body thrumming with adrenaline. Tap, tap, tap, "Madam Malkin's Robe Shop, Diagon Alley, August 1991." Draco had always felt it was important to give as much detail as possible. A silvery form rose out of the pensive and Draco began to cry.

An eleven year old version of the man he was arse over tits in love with took form along with a younger spiky version of himself. Draco watched as his past self met Harry, taunted Harry, tortured and teased and bullied Harry.The badges and dementors and ferrets and phantoms in the forrest.He watched as he not-so-subtly pinned for Harry. The ugliness and painful obliviousness of their childhood. The missed opportunities and moments of redemption. Draco watched Act 1 of their story.

Suddenly, the molten silver dropped a back into the basin and voices filled the room. Draco recognized his mother and father; Pansy, Greg, Blaise and Theo; Hermione, Ron, Neville and Luna; an endless list of Weasleys. Draco heard his parents recount the letters Draco wrote home from Hogwarts, filled with nothing but complaints of "perfect Potter and his stupid hair." He heard the Granger-Weasley's speak of Harry's obsession with and mild stalking of Draco. It went on for what seemed like hours.

Finally, the voices stopped and a lone figure rose up from the silvery depths. Basin-Harry looked utterly undone. Even in memory-form love poured from him and wrapped Draco in comfort. He spoke to Draco of their past hurts, their eventual détente, the ensuing friendship the lasted a total grand total of 26 hours before falling into bed together and the confessions of love that grew from the unlikeliest of beginnings.

He spoke of his fears and losses, of his hopes for the future. Of the memories they would make and the adventure that would be growing old together. He spoke of things Draco could not have fathomed at 16. He spoke the words of a man who had rediscovered life with the only other person who could possibly understand the weight of the "choices" that had been foisted upon them.


End file.
